THE DARK-SKY OBSERVER

VOL. 14, No. 2 Issue Number 60 MARCH / APRIL, 2000

***** In "Keep It In The Dark", this month, there is an extensive ( around 50 ) description of 'Deep-Sky' objects in the constellations MONOCEROS & PUPPIS, consequently, the rest of the newsletter is rather more sparse than usual.********

The 'OPEN TELESCOPE NIGHT' of Jan 8th, was clouded out, so we didn't open the observatory - not a great start for a new year, but that's Mom Nature.

Jan. 16th, was the Annual Officer's Meeting at Judy & Les KEMP's. Discussion at the meeting included:

Officer Elections at the Annual Star-B-Q & Business Meeting, which as you propbably know, is usually in June. Rick is getting 'BURNED-OUT' and NEEDS to take a break from being an officer. So, the office of PRESIDENT will be open. LES & JUDY have gone another year beyond what they said would be the time that they would give & THEY are going to leave vacancies too. Nancy, says that she doesn't have the time to devote, due to a crazy work schedule, and so V. President is also going to be open. So, there you have it folks; If NO ONE is willing to take over these positions, this organization will be in trouble. Rick DID say, however, that he MIGHT be willing to do Sec'y / Trea. one more time, but hey folks, it'd be REALLY NICE to have someone ELSE take on the responsibility, not only of Sec / Trea., but the OTHER positions as well. Why make him do it until he reaches the point where he just dissociates himself altogether from the organization ?

We also discussed the creation of two NEW positions for the club; that of Equipment Coordinator & that of Program Coordinator. I volunteered to get the Program Coordinator position 'off the ground', but fully expect some one else to take over the position as soon as possible. The reason for this is, that the writing of the 'DSO' takes a substantial part of my time & I really can't give much more to the club: Astronomy, or at least my passion for it, has cost me TWO marriages and hasn't exactly done wonders for the current one. The Program Coordinator will be responsible for remote ( on-site ) "Star Parties at places OTHER THAN at the Observatories, implementation of Observing Programs involving club members & TRYING to come up with ideas for programs for club meeting nights, i.e., Guest Speakers. We seem to have offered VERY LITTLE, in this respect, to the membership & I think it MAY be a primary reason for the lack of PARTICIPATION among the club's membership. The job of Program Coordinator originally, was part of the job of Vice President, at least, according to the By-Laws of the club. This position, I think, will eventually be divided into TWO parts: Observing ProgramsandMeeting Progams.

The EQUIPMENT COORDINATOR will handle ALL the 'Loaner' telescopes, checking them out to members, checking the instruments on their return & storing them when they're not in use. In this respect, we discussed the idea of putting a time limit on the Loan of scopes, with the stipulation that one can RE-NEW the 'checkout' for another given period, whatever that loan period might be, understanding that the receipt of a telescope includes the responsibility to MAKE SURE that telescope is AT THE OBSERVATORY for Public Observing Nights, as part of the loan policy. The suggestion was also made about perhaps charging for the use of the 'Loaner' scopes, but THAT'S one of the things the increased DUES were for, so it didn't fly.

My presentation of the TREASURY SUMMARY in the Last Issue, was taken by the Officers as misleading, and they felt that I need to clarify - On the bottom line, I stated that there was a NEGATIVE Balance for the year. What I MEANT by that is that we spent more this year than we took in, but THAT came out of the SURPLUS that we had at the end of LAST YEAR. So, the REAL Bottom Line shouldn't be $-47.00, but $47.00 LESS than we had this time last year, -or- $ 378.61.

FUND RAISING - Rick's students have done a Fund Raiser for WHS, in which some of the funds generated will be used to purchase items to be used at the obsevatories, in conjunction with the telescopes, or as accessories. These items will remain the property of the Washington School District, but will be used on our observatory telescopes: the 4" Unitron, 10" newtonians & the 30" f/4; perhaps also on the 40" f/5. At least PART of what Rick is purchasing will be several 2" eyepieces w/ focal lengths ranging from 100mm down to 15mm or so. The 100mm will allow us to use the Unitron as its own viewfinder, producing 15X in the main instrument with a 6.7 mm exit pupil. A 75mm will produce 20X, etc. The shorter focal lengths will be used on the other scopes that have lower F/ratios.

TASK SHEETS - I've been working on these off & on for the last year or so, but I'm far from finished. Rick also did some preliminary work on them last year, when he had some time to. They are coming along, albeit slowly.

Public Programs - The opinion was raised, that ever since the Observatories have been open, there has been very little real OUTREACH conducted, i.e., Offering Star Parties in regional towns or at varouis schools etc., the way we USED TO DO. When THIS was done we had a lot of new members joining our group from those who attended these programs. Judy said at the meeting that all the new members that joined during the last year did so through contact with the Website, not as visitors impressed by our 'Stellar Pizzazz'.!! I think we MAY have lost touch with the community, and I for one would like to get it back.

Programs/ Workshops for members ONLY. - ( this is related to the Task Sheets ). We were talking about doing some 'workshops' for members to help them become better informed about Observing Technique, Use of Star Charts, Telescopes, Binoculars, Pencil & Paper for making DRAWINGS, the Operation of the Observatory for those who expressed an interest or are at least Willing to participate in the Open Telescope Nights. There was also talk about doing the A.L. 'Observe Programs'as a group; starting with the MESSIERs or perhaps the Lunar Observations.

SINCE ECC has a new President, the idea of sending another invitation to the Board of Trustees of ECC, for a Private Observing Session @ Schmidt-Scott Observatory is on our minds. The thought is that the new Pres. might look a lot more favorably on our activities out there, if she had "First-Hand Knowledge" of what it is that we DO there every Two ( more or less ) Weeks. We should almost certainly have a better relationship with HER, than we did with 'wutz-iz-name'.

CHAPTER CLUBS-

January 28th, the 2nd Open Telescope Night of the year was clouded-out, as was--February 12th & February 25th.

SATURDAY, the 11th, 7:30, we'll be hosting a group of Boy Scouts and their leaders, on the regular meeting night. We're expecting about 20 people from this group in addition to any others that might show up.

The Open Telescope Night on March 24th has at this point in time no group scheduled, so we may be observing by ourselves. If any of you are interested in coming that night to do some of your Messiers, or whatever, or just want to do some casual observing, we'll be opening the observatory at 7:30.

SATURDAY morning, the 25th, we'll be going out to the hill owned by Pat McDonald to Watch EAGLES. This is open to ANY EMDSO member who wishes to come. Bring the kids - it could be a lot of fun. We'll also be looking over the site for the future 30"'s observatory on the hill & maybe Pat will show us the caves that he and his sons are excavating for Indian artifacts. CALL Pat at 573-237-4171 or Rick at 636-239-7196, for details as to meeting place & time.

TUESDAY, APRIL 4th, from 7 - 10 p.m., we're running a 'workshop' for some Girl Scout leaders at ECC & Schmidt-Scott

'Open Telescope Night' @ ECC - APRIL 8th & 21st. As of this date, there are no scheduled groups coming on these nights, so if you want to do some more or less private observing, come over to the college on those evenings

APRIL 12th - - The 3rd Anniversary of theSCHMIDT-SCOTT OBSERVATORY at East Central College. So far, nothing is planned for that evening, but it might kind of neat, ( if Mom Nature is in a good mood ), to have an observing session, even if it is on a SUNDAY night. If the sky is clear, I'll be there, for sure.

There was some discussion on this subject at the January Officer's meeting. I outlined what I saw as a desireable outcome of this effort that I'm undertaking. The Officers don't feel like they will participate ACTIVELY in this project, but offered their blessings & in effect, wished me luck.

The thought occurred to me some time ago, that there are undoubtedly A BUNCH of people around the state who are active amateur astronomers, but because of where they live have No Access to an Astronomy Club, because, even though they MAY live in a fair-sized town, there's NO CLUB. I feel that I NEED to try to help these people to START ONE, or in the case of an AILING, but EXISTING club, try to help them re-vitalize. My ultimate goal is to have TEN ASTRONOMY CLUBS in the East Missouri Region, fairly evenly spaced from approximately Jeff City to the Mississippi, and all tied together in a loose organization, hopefully under the corporate umbrella of the EMDSO, but still have the individual groups be AUTONOMOUS with their own sense of DIRECTION & PURPOSE. After all, some groups do better as ACADEMIC type organizations while others do best as OBSERVERS' GROUPS. Maybe some OTHER group might find purpose in being a mouthpiece for Legislative Lobbying, or some OTHER cause. Any DUES collected by each organization would be THEIR'S to do with as they pleased, MINUS the COST of the 'DSO', which would be sent to the EMDSO Treasurer. After some discussion on the matter, it was determined that THAT cost comes to about 12-13 Dollars per year, per person-the cost of printing & mailing all 6 issues. If, however, the amount of information contained increased VERY MUCH, it'd might HAVE TO become a MONTHLY, rather than Bi-Monthly Newsletter. Each club would ALSO have its' own Officers. The idea here is that we could cooperate, helping each other out for local Star Parties & general commraderie, and members from one nearby group with more observing or other experience might operate a 'Workshop' for another group to help them increase their skills or membership or whatever. All individual members of each member group would recieve the 'Dark-Sky Observer' as a COMMON NEWSLETTER, where someone from each club would send me the necessary information to put into it each issue & each club would have its own section. The rest of the newsletter would be General Interest ( information for everyone ). Places that I am looking at to eventually pursue club renewal or initial formation are:

ROLLA - where initial steps have been taken to get a NEW club started and a couple meetings have taken place; JEFFERSON CITY- Here, there HAS been contact with the a fellow who works in the J.C. Chamber of Commerce who is also an avid astronomer, but Jeff City has NO CLUB as yet - so I plan to Start one; MONTGOMERY CITY- I once heard that a member of the St. Louis Astronomical Society lived in Mongomery City, which I found interesting due to the fact that it's some 35 miles FARTHER from St. Louis than we are. That & the fact that I have had ties to the town since childhood - my Kindergarten teacher was from there AND she knew my grandfather, who LIVED there some 15-20 years. Montgomery County Has No Club, at this time;TROY ( Lincoln County Star-gazers ), has no newsletter or any form of communication for its members, other than the telephone & snail-mail. Apparently, no one has ever had the inclination or the time to produce one and so communication is something of a problem for them. In my opinion, Communication Is Essential, if a club is going to survive.; - CAPE GIRARDEAU- is a pretty big College Town, & yet it HAS NO Astronomy Club, never has had one, which I think is a Great Big Shame. I'm SURE there are quite a few people there who'd LOVE to have one there, & I plan to help them DO SO. ; FARMINGTON-/ STE. GENEVIEVE - PERRYVILLE- & IRONTON -- These are ALL towns with fair-sized populations which lie between this group ( EMDSO ) & Cape. As far as I'm aware, there are No clubs in this large region, BUT, they DO have some REALLY EXCELLENT skies, because of the low population density. Mostly small towns in the region with lots of farms in the low-lying areas & vast forested tracts in the Northern Ozark Mountains, which make for some really good DARK night skies. A well-Equipped Observatory facility here would be really neat, like maybe on top of Taum Sauk Mtn. I used to go backpacking in this area when I was A LOT younger & always carried an Equatorial refractor and my camera equipment along, spend a couple of days playing in the water or whatever & ALL NIGHT observing & doing astrophotography or just GAWKING. These four towns are far enough apart that each could PROBABLY support its own small club.; Sitting approximately in the center of the South & Mid-Central portion of Missouri is the EMDSO. In 1990, there was No Club in this area either. Now, look wutz happind !! I think the magic IS REPEATABLE !!

J. KELLEY

** ALTHA MARSH & JOHN SGOURAS of the LCSG & Thane BOPP, member of the EMDSO, conducted an Astronomy Program & 'Star Party' for the __________ Elementary School in O'Fallon, Mo., on ________, January ___, 2000. They said that there were about ____ attendees, & the whole evening was a resounding success. ALTHA tells me that they have plans for other sessions for & . ***

In addition to the regularly scheduled Observing Nights, there will occasionally be Special Events where we may have an observing session for a Scout or School group, where we'll need people to man telescopes and answer questions and/or just help out.

What's the future of the facilities of the COLTER-MENKE OBSERVATORY? -DUH !!

On the 16th, the CORONA AUSTRALIDS occur. This isn't a very well known shower. In fact, I've NEVER seen anything about it in Sky & Telescope or Astronomy magazines. One can expect 5 meteors per hour at maximum for this shower, which has its Radiant at 245D, -48D dec., and the duration of about 10 days centered on the 16th. NOTE that CORONA AUSTRALIS is SOUTH of Sagittarius in the Summer Milky Way.

During a 15 day period centered on the 26th, the Earth encounters the VIRGINID Meteor Stream. There's no estimate available to me as yet, for hourly rates, but if you're interested in watching for this one, watch toward the direction of the Celestial equator in Virgo during the nearly two week period.

During a period of 20 days +/- centered on the 9th, is the ALPHA VIRGINIDS Meteor Stream. There's no available estimates for hourly rates, but the RADIANT is as the name implies near the star SPICA(210,-10).

The 21st & 22nd offers us the LYRIDS with its' RADIANT at 18H 16M R.A., +34 degr. Declination. Single observer hourly rate (SOHR) will be around 15 meteors. Duration 2 days. Not a particularly cataclysmic event but it's still considered one of the MAJOR meteor showers of the year. This Annual shower is associated with the comet of 1861.

MERCURY - is 2-1/4 degrees above Venus on March 16th. It reaches Greatesr Elongation WEST of the Sun (28 degrees ) on the morning of March 28th. On APRIL 28th, Mercury & Venus are only 1/3 degree apart, and SHOULD fit in the same eyepiece field .at 75-100X.

VENUS -

MARS - is 1 degree to the right of Jupiter on APRIL 5th, and on the 15th comes to within 2-1/4 degrees to the upper right of Saturn.

NEPTUNE -

URANUS - is 2/3 degree WEST of Venus on March 4th. Again, approximately 40X should be about right to view BOTH in the same field simultaneously.

JUPITER -

SATURN -

crosses the ECLIPTIC on MARCH 20 at 1:35 a.m.CST, and thus begins SPRING in the Northern Hemisphere.

Over the next several issues, I plan to explore the SOUTHERN constellations, those often ignorred by northern observers, because they're low in the sky where atmospheric extinction becomes a problem with seeing & transparency. The sky appears in several of these constellations to be fairly blank, devoid of stars, at least of bright recognizeable asterisms. Several, actually, most , of the objects that I'll be talking about would be challenging due to their low altitude. Almost anything more than 30 degrees South Declination will be difficult. I will, in some cases, be going as far as minus 50 degrees. Our ABSOLUTE southern horizon here is Minus 51 degrees, 22 minutes, but unless there are NO TREES in the way, we can only get to about minus 40. The first of these constellations is not all that far south, but does appear to be one of those fairly blank regions of sky - BUT IT REALLY AIN'T ! There are LOTS of things to see, if you know where to look, for either the binocular observer or those with telescopes. Some may even be challenge objects for some observers with the 30 & 40 inch scopes. Where possible, Epoch 2000 co-ordinates will be given, but most of the time they'll be Epoch 1950.0, which is what is given in "Burnham's". Epoch 2000 coords., will be preceeded by an asterisk (*).

Located on the Eastern side of ORION, between the stars Betelguese, Sirius & Procyon, isMonoceros which covers an extensive piece of sky. There are LOTS of neat things to see here, including Diffuse Nebulae & Open Star Clusters that are WELL known to many amateurs & professionals alike. Much of the constellation is embedded in a HUGE region of interstellar dust & gas, with many star-forming regions. As we look into Monoceros, we're looking toward the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy, toward intergalactic space, but due to the dust & gas, there are not a whole lot of galaxies visible in this part of the sky. Most of the objects that ARE visible, are within the bounds of our home galactic system. Monoceros is found on Chart 12 of Sky Atlas 2000, where all the objects are plotted, Except ONE, NGC 2232. All objects are listed in order of ASCENDING Right Ascension, i.e., from West to East.

NGC 2149; DN - 06h01.1'/'s 09d44' - dia. 2'x1.3', faint, w/ stellar nucleus. mag 12.5

NGC 2170 - DN - 06h05.2' / s 06d23' - mag 9 star embedded in faint nebulosity; dia 1'

NGC 2182 - DN - 06h07.1' / s 06d19' - mag 9 star embedded in faint nebulosity; dia 3'

NGC 2183 - DN - Part of NGC 2170, 2182, 2185 Group.

NGC 2185 - DN: - 06h08.7' / s 06d12' - Group of small, faint Diffuse Nebulae, located about 10 degrees NW of Sirius, & just about a degree and a half West of GAMMA MON, in the southwest portion of the constellation. Brightest of these, is 2185, which is on the first HERSCHEL OBJECTS observing list. 2185 is still, very faint w/ a mag. 12 star involved. Size is about 2'x2'. A CHALLENGE for a large scope. Probably Reflection nebulae, illuminated by Gamma, or some other nearby stars.

NGC 2215 - OC: - R.A. 06h18.4' / Decl. s07d16'. - Herschel List object - No TEXT found on this object. GIVE IT A TRY & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU FIND.

NGC 2232, at R.A.06hrs, 2x'; Decl. -05d xx', about 2-1/2 degr. N of Beta MON & involving 5th mag. 10 MON. 2232 is an Open Cluster, with a small number of stars mag. 6 to 8. ( MAY be visible in binoculars )

2237-39-44-46; OC/DN: - Centered approximately @ 06h29.7' / n 04d54': "Rosette" Nebular complex & Star Cluster; DN/OC - PRETTY IMPRESSIVE !! For those of you who've never seen the Rosette, it really LOOKS like the name implies: at least in color photos. Just like looking down into the center of a Rose Blossom, with a little sprinkle of dew in the center represented by the lovely star cluster ( NGC 2244 ) in the middle of the nebula. In fact, it's these stars that are hollowing-out the center of the nebula with their radiation pressure. All around the inside of this shell of dust & gas are little opaque knots of material. These are condensations in the nebular cloud that are collapsing gravitationally and becoming stars. This type of object is called a "BOK GLOBULE", and the Rosette Nebula has HUNDREDS of these, some of which are very prominent even in a small to medium sized telescope. The cloud itself is made primarily of Hydrogen gas, and due to the intense Ultra-violet radiation from the stars in the center of the nebula (2244), the entire nebbula glows a beautiful RED ( Of course it only shows on long-exposure photographs ). The entire comlex can be seen east of Betelguese & Orion's 'Belt' in BINOCULARS.

NGC 2245, DN - 06h29.9' / n 10d12' w/11m star.

NGC 2247, -

NGC 2251, OC/DN - 06h32.0' / n 08d24' - Herschel List object - dia. 10' w/ about 25 stars, mag. 10....

NGC 2259, - 06h35.8' / n 10d55' - dia. 4', fairly rich w/ about 25 stars mag. 10.....

NGC 2261-DN; 06h36.4' / n 08d46' - Mag 10, dia. 2'. 'Comet-shaped' nebula w/ variable star R MON. at the tip. 2261 is known as "Hubble's Variable Nebula". The surface brightness is high, so high magnifications can be used to great effect. The distance to 2261 is not accurately known. At least before Hipparcos, no parallax had been observed, but it's believed that it is a part of the 2264 complex which lies only about a degree away, and the distance to 2264 is well known to be in the neighborhood of 2,600 light-years.

NGC 2264 - 'THE CHRISTMAS TREE', OC, - 06h38.4' / n 09d56'. About 20 bright stars & a couple hundred fainter ones in a triangular shape implying the name, mag 6...10, with faint nebulosity involved. At the base of the Christmas Tree, which is up-side-down, is a 4.6 mag star, S Monocerotis. The Christmas Tree is also near the apex of the faint, cone-shaped diffuse nebula, ( "Cone Nebula" ). This complex is about three degrees south of Xi GEMINORUM and a very busy part of the sky due to being in a crowded part of the Milky Way. An unusual fact about NGC 2264 is the apparent fact that the stars have not reached reached the Main Sequence on the H-R Diagram, which means that they MAY still be contracting gravitationally from the nebula from which they formed. It is assumed that these stars are less than 1 MILLION years old - JUST BABIES !

IC 446; DN - 00h00.o' / ns 00d00'. - Faint, small extension on West side of CONE NEBULA complex.

IC 2167; DN - 00h00.o' / ns 00d00'. - Faint, small extension on West side of CONE NEBULA complex.

IC 2169; DN - 00h00.o' / ns 00d00'. - Faint, small extension on West side of CONE NEBULA complex.

NGC 2286, OC; - Herschel List object -

NGC 2301, OC; - Herschel List object - 06h49.2' / n 00d31'. At magnitude 6, a bright, narrowly elongated grouping of 60+ stars, measuring approx. 15' in length by 5'. Stars from mag. 8.......15

NGC 2311,OC; - Herschel List object - No TEXT found on this object. GIVE IT A TRY & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU FIND.

NGC 2323 (M-50); -OC: - 07h00.5' / s 08d16' - Mag 6; 10' dia.; 100+ stars mag 9....14.

( NGC 2335; 2343; 2353; IC-2177 NEBULAR COMPLEX ) "BURNHAM's" description only mentions IC 2177, and calls it: vL-( very large ), eF-(extremely faint ), neb'y 85'x25'. Epoch 1950.0 co-ordinates are centered on:R.A. 07h03.1' / DEC.-10d29'. This MUST be a really huge system to have at least 3 separate star clusters involved. Of course, there's the possibility that these clusters are foreground objects.

NGC 2335,OC; - Herschel List object - Part of IC 2177

NGC 2343,OC; - 07h05.9' / s 10d34' - Herschel List object - dia 4'; About 15 stars, mag. 10....Part of IC 2177

NGC 2353,OC; - 07h12.3' / s 10d12' - Herschel List object - dia. 15'; One mag 6 star involved plus 20 or so stars mag 10...Part of IC 2177

NGC 2506 (CALDWELL 54) - OC - 07h57.7' / s 10d29' - Herschel List object - mag 11; 10' dia.; 75 stars mag 11..... A very rich, though compact cluster.

NGC 2298; GC - 06h47.2' / s 35d57' - dia. 3'; mag10. Bright & very rich; well resolved in moderate sized scope.

NGC 2310; GX - 06h52.4' / s 40d48' - 2'x0.5'; mag. 12.8, S0 - edge-on Spiral galaxy.

NGC 2421, OC. - Herschel List object - 07h34.1' / s 20d30' - dia 8', w/ 60+ stars mag. 11...13.

M-47; NGC 2422: OC. - 07h34.3' / s 35d57' - Bright, pretty rich,fairly large. Dia 20'; mag. 5, w/ 25 stars from mag 6....

NGC 2423: OC. - Herschel List object - 07h34.8' / s 13d45' - Large, rich & pretty coarse. Dia. 20', w/ 60 stars, mags 12.....

Melotte 71: OC - 07h35.3' / s 11d56' - Kind of large, faint, moderately coarse; dia. 8' w/ 65 stars mags 10....

M-46; NGC 2437: OC - 07h39.6' / s 14d42' - Very bright, very rich, large.; Mag. 8; dia 25' w/ 150 stars from mag. 10.... PN-(ngc 2438 ) on North edge.

NGC 2438: PN. - Herschel List object - 07h39.6' / s 14d36' - Dia. 65", mag 11 w/ 17th mag central star.

NGC 2440: PN - Herschel List object - 07h39.9' / s 18d05' - Mag 11.5; dia. 50"x20".w/ 16th mag central star.

M-93; NGC 2447; OC - 07h42.4' / s 23d45' - Large, bright & coarse-Mag. 7; dia. 18' w/ about 50 stars mag 8....13. A very pretty cluster.

NGC 2451: OC - 07h43.6' / s 37d51' - VERY LARGE grouping of scattered stars incl., 4th mag. 'c' Puppis.

NGC 2452-3, OC/PN - 07h45.6 / s 27d13' - 2452 is a small Planetary Nebula w/ a dia. 20"x 15". Mag. 13, w/ 19th mag centr. star. It will be found on the SW edge of NGC 2453, an Open Cluster, which is also small, probably less than 5' in dia. & 10th mag.

NGC 2477; CALDWELL 71: OC - 07h50.5' / s 38d25' - A very large, bright & v. rich cluster. Mag 7 w/ 300+ stars, mags 11...., in a dia of 25'.

NGC 2482, OC. - Herschel List object - 07h52.8' / s 24d10' - Dia. 18' w/ about 50 faint stars.

NGC 2479, OC. - Herschel List object - 07h54.7' / s 17d35' - Dia. 8' w/ 40 faint stars.

NGC 2509, OC. - Herschel List object - 07h58.5' / s 18d56' - Dia. 4' w/ 40+ faint stars, mag 10....

NGC 2489, OC. - Herschel List object - Dia 7'. about 35 stars from mag 11.....

NGC 2527, OC. - Herschel List object - 08h03.3' / s 28d01' - Dia. 20'; 40 stars, mag 11...

NGC 2539, OC. - Herschel List object - 08h08.4' / s 12d41' - dia 20' w/ 100+ stars, mag 10....

NGC 2546; OC - 08h10.1' / s 37d32' - Dia 25'; Mag 8 w/ about 50 stars mag 9....

NGC 2568; OC - 08h16.4' / s 36d58' - Small moderately coarse cluster w/ 15 or so faint stars & a dia of 2'.

NGC 2567, OC. - Herschel List object - 08h16.6' / s 30d29' - Dia. 10' w/ 50 stars, mag 11...14.

NGC 2571: OC. - Herschel List object - 08h16.9' / s 29d35' - Dia. 8' w/ 25 stars mag 9....

FOR THE PAST several years, I've been trying to get some of you to make drawings of your observations, citing the point that the act of making these drawings will be a great help in developing your observing skill. One of the 'new', younger members Kevin Eckelkamp, has been doing just that; working his way through the Messier List, drawing as he goes, while getting experience with scope use & 'star-hopping' with the club's 8" f/5 'loaner scope'. We will be seeing some of the fruits of his labors in up-coming issues of the 'DSO'.

IN THE MEANTIME, another, well-experienced member, Mark Birkmann, has also gotten the Draw-What-You-See bug & using the 40" f/5, has made some pretty neat drawings. He has also written an article to accompany them, which follows:-----

I thought you might be interested to see a few of the drawings I've made with the 40" scope. Much more detail is visible when using a large scope, but it does not necessarily reveal itself easily. To make out subtle detail requires careful study. The best way to make sure you are seeing all possible detail is to draw what you see. I am amazed at how much my observing skills have improved since I started making drawings at the eyepiece. I will often find, even after studying an object for 20 minutes or more, that a faint dust lane in an edge-on spiral, or the central star of a planetary nebula has popped into view. In these cases, had I not been making a drawing, I probably would have missed these added bits of detail. It is equally rewarding to be able to look back at a drawing from a previous observing session to see how a familiar object looked to you in the past under different conditions. If a drawing is available for reference, you will also be able to tell if that small galaxy at the edge of the field of view had been noted before and simply forgotten, or if you are seeing it for the first time. Additionally, drawings are a very good way to let other people know how an object looks to you. As we all know, many of the objects we observe are just about beautiful beyond description, - a drawing can help fill in what is left out by the verbal descriptions we so frequently hear, such as; "Wow!!", "ooooohhh" and "Oh, my goodness!"

( ED. NOTE: The following two examples with the observer's 'notes' are given to illustrate just what is entailed in making a proper observation & drawing. )

Drawn by M. Birkmann

Object: NGC 2261, "Hubble's Variable Nebula". Size: 2'x1'.

Reflection Nebula Constellation, MONOCEROS

Observer: Mark G. Birkmann

Observation Date / Time: 11-04-99; 9:00 UT ( 3:00 a.m. CST )

Location: Etlah, Mo., Lat 38d37', El. 700' - Rural

Scale 1-10: Sky Darkness / Transparency, 3-4-( some high thin clouds ); Seeing, 4

No Moon.

Instrument, 40" f/5.

Magnification= lowest 125X;

Filters used; OIII, H-Beta, Orion 'Ultrablock'.

Description; -- "This nebula appeared to have three distinct levels of brightness with the brightest being near the embedded star at the tip. The star did not have a stellar appearance but was embedded in nebulosity. Just behind the star is a small slightly darker lane that is connected to the edge of the nebula and goes about 2/3 of the way across. At the back edge of this brightest level of nebulosity, three features were seen. First, a concave area was noted, about 1/3 of the way in from the edge. Adjacent to this was a large dark lane that extended through the middle, dimmer level of nebulosity. An extension of the brighest area of nebulosity went down the side about half-way into the middle area of nebulosity. The middle area of nebulosity was fairly uniform in brightness and had a straight rear border that extended to the large dark lane. The border continued on the other side of the dark lane but was a little farther back. The next level of nebulosity was very faint and was only seen on the same side of the nebula as the bright extension into the middle area of nebulosity. I hope to view this nebula again in a few months to look for changes. Observed again 12-15-99, No Change".

Drawn by M. Birkmann

Object: NGC 2392, "ESKIMO NEBULA"

Planetary Nebula; Constellation, GEMINI; Mag., 9.9(p) Size: 19".5.

Observer: Mark G. Birkmann

Observation Date / Time: 11-11-99; 8:50 UT ( 2:50 a.m. CST )

Location: Etlah, Mo., Lat 38d37', El. 700' - Rural

Scale 1-10: Sky Darkness / Transparency, 6; Seeing, 5; No Moon.

Instrument, 40" f/5.

Magnification= lowest 125X;

Filters used; OIII, H-Beta, Orion 'Ultrablock'.

Description; -- "This beautiful Planetary Nebula showed a bright inner ring surrounding the central star. The area inside the ring was evenly illuminated and slightly darker than the outer halo. The lower part of the ring split for a short distance with a dark area in the separation equal in brightness to the nebulosity inside the main ring. The outer halo was about 3X the diameter of the inner ring. It was evenly illuminated except for a bright area near the top and a somewhat bright area on the right side. I have seen so many photos of this object that the upper bright area may have been coming from memory instead of my retina. This doesn't explain the bright area on the right though, since none of the photos I've seen show this to be a particularly bright area".